Seven post Covid-19 retail trends. Peter Scott retail consultant at Graystone Strategy looks at the way retail is adapting to the new challenges of 2020
The pandemic’s impact on retail is stark. But as with all crises, hope rises from the ashes. Here we look at the trends we’ll see emerge in the next 12 months to keep retail alive. The customer mindset has changed and that brings opportunity. Put simply, if you weren’t able to trade online you will have suffered greatly in the last few months. Many consumers discovered online shopping for the first time in lockdown. In particular, an older demographic started to buy their weekly shop online. Food shifted from 20% of supermarket sales to 50%. And while people have become more open to buying in a different way they’ve also considered buying things they would only ever go to a shop for such as bedding plants from garden centres. There has also been a surge in ‘indoor activity’. Sales of books, craft kits and puzzles have leapt up. Many of the businesses providing these items have seen sales more than double compared to last year. Customer data and segmentation need a rethink. The traditional methods for segmentation were starting to become irrelevant, but now they really need a rethink. Life has fundamentally changed for some people you’d have expected to behave in a certain way. They perhaps...
